Sabbats

Sabbats are solar festivals, marking the stations of the sun and other important seasonal events. The eight sabbats are the high holy days of the Pagan calendar, comprising the Wheel of the Year. The Four Quarters are the equinoxes and solstices, concerning the balance between day and night as it shifts through the year. People have long observed these key astronomical times. The Cross-Quarters fall between the Four Quarters. They coincide with such events as sheep giving birth or crops reaching harvest. The Four Quarters and Cross-Quarters provide one way of dividing the Wheel of the Year. Sabbats tend to involve worship more than spellcraft, often featuring a specific deity.

The Wheel of the Year can also tell a story. Mythology is a collection of sacred stories, within a single culture or across the breadth of human history. Many different motifs appear across different cultures as they manifest one or another mythic cycle. One myth might portray the Goddess as she moves from Maiden to Mother to Crone, while another would portray the exchange of power between the Oak King and the Holly King. For a complete example of a mythic cycle: the God is born at Yule, appears as a nursing babe at Imbolc, frolics as a child at Ostara, unites with the Goddess at Beltane, reaches the height of his power at Litha, dies with the grain at Lammas, travels between worlds at Mabon, and rules in the underworld at Samhain.Fieldhaven Coven observes the eight sabbats. We count the Wheel of the Year beginning in summer: Litha, Lammas, Mabon, Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, and Beltane. A typical event includes a ritual, a potluck feast, and time to socialize; there are often crafts, games, or other activities relating to the sabbat's theme. Our sabbat events are usually open to Pagan and Pagan-friendly folks outside the coven, as long as they’re known and welcomed by the hosts. It's a good opportunity to learn who we are and what we do.

This section of our website contains a basic introduction to celebrating the sabbats. There is background information on history and themes, resources, food and decorations, etc. The first two sections on each sabbat page were written as installments for a blog series, then touched up and reprinted here as an overview of sabbat practices. Then there is at least one complete ritual text for each holiday, taken from rituals performed by Fieldhaven Coven. If you look at the dates on those, you can see how our ritual directions have grown more detailed over time, and how the complexity of rituals has waxed and waned depending on how many people were available on each occasion. Many of these rituals deal with a specific deity and/or culture. Others have more abstract themes. A few deal with modern mythology and archetypes rather than historic ones.

Bear in mind that this is a good sampling of our ritual style, but not a complete one. Not all rituals in the Greenhaven Tradition are scripted. Some have only a mental outline and are done entirely freestyle. Some have a few scripted parts, but only the people reading those will have sheets. Some have complete scripts and everyone gets a copy to follow along. We like a mix of different styles and techniques, from simple and spontaneous to elaborate pageantry; we have found that these accomplish different things. What you see here are some of the fully scripted rituals that will make sense to people who weren't there.

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